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Good stories need peaks and troughs

I'm sat in a cafe waiting to pick up my girlfriend. This 'blog is about to get redesigned dramatically, I'm currently dicking about with the settings on it, trying to get it to look "professional".

As I do this I'm re-reading some of the old entries and it seemed like a good idea to put in a new one, in the personal style that got this thing a few thousand readers at its height; rather than the formal style I've been trying to cook up over the last few years.[1]

There's still occasional traffic through these parts, I think it's the foundation stone I'm going to try and build upon. Been making moves toward doing a podcast recently, it'll be here that it first appears. It's taking a while because I don't want to return to it and then realise I've not got enough time in my schedule to keep doing it, if you see what I mean.

We did some good business with the previous one. The Cult of Nick got a few thousand listeners and helped me to meet some great people along the way. It led to the creation of Talk2MeRadio with Jon Gaunt, a man I've become good friends with over the years. The next one I do will just be under my name but its back catalogue will contain all the original episodes of The C.O.N. - a podcast which I am still hoping might stand the test of time.[2]

I used to write one of these years ago on the old website at work. It
was quite good but some genius decided it'd be a good idea to delete it.
I threw a hissy fit and quit writing for them for ages. Then I relented
because I simply couldn't bare not to pump the bowels of my mind clean
on a regular basis. Then they deleted it again just prior to a website
re-launch which didn't include any 'blogs at all. Ruined.

So now
I've moved to here. The blogger.com website where I'm just another div
writing about his life, for the fun of it. Not for money. Actually that
makes it seem somehow purer and more exciting.

I've not changed. There's part of me that still feels as if it has no choice but to communicate with "the void" which, in this instance, is you, my dear reader. It's what I've done all my life. I can't stop. Speaking with people and seeing what they say is fascinating to me. However hustling that as a job which earns me money has always been problematic to me, I'm a working class lad from a place where you do a 'proper job'. Not doing physical work has always seemed like 'getting away with it' to me, rather than working.

Ideally I want to do my podcast full time, I want it to be my main focus in the long term future. The problem is that part of me feels like it's a bit ruined if I earn money doing it. Like that makes it less 'pure' and exciting. That's because in many instances in my life it does and has; some of the radio stations I've worked on being further down that line than others. Worst case scenario for me is it becomes 'just a job'.

Key to any long term way forward is that we maintain the free speech aspect of The C.O.N. By internet standards it's very very mild, not offensive at all really, but I'm aware of the fact lots of it could not be broadcast in the UK. I think I've got a kind of PTSD as regards free speech after working for broadcasters for so long. It's not paranoia though, the censors are always there waiting to get you.

Specifically I'm looking at things like Patreon at the moment,
if anyone has any other ideas or routes to funding do post them in the
comments section.[3] It's tricky to discern if that's a way forward or not. The long and short of it is that ultimately I'll be asking the audience to fund things directly, we'd be looking at aiming to pull in around £23k a year, I can live on that and buy a few bits of kit we might need.

Obviously it's possible I might find a way forward with Jon at Talk2MeRadio, we're certainly thinking about ways of doing that which might involve advertisers or a sponsor[4]. Depends, either which way I'm going to start soon. Just need to bugger about with this website a bit more first, set up the audioboom account and off we go.

Before that though I'm off to pick up my girlfriend.

Nicholarse (5th Pope of The High Church, the only real Discordian sect in the West) Margerrison.

[1] I'm available as a writer, done a few bits for magazines etc in the past.[2] I am proud of the fact people see a lot of my work as being ahead of its time.[3] Also, Steem credits, what's that, worth doing?[4] Ooo, I'll sponsor that Nick I'm a millionaire with a product that needs promoting, or something.

In short he's a TV presenter and an award winning radio presenter.
In long, he's worked on LBC, Kerrang Radio, Hallam FM and The Bay. And other places, for a bit.
The TV show he presented was called "Esoteria" and ran for two series on Controversial TV (Sky channel 200).
Currently he is, as they say in radio, between jobs.